Manitoba Book Awards: 2012 Nominees

I often forget how expansive Canada is until I have to announce all the regional and provincial book award programmes.  Then, I find myself blogging post after post of worthy Canadian books, authors, illustrators and publishers which really do reflect the unique nature of each area.  As such,  it's only fitting that there are the Manitoba Book Awards which are administered by the Manitoba Writers’ Guild and the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers, with assistance from their numerous partners (Aqua Books, Friesens, the Manitoba Arts Council, Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Tourism, McNally Robinson Booksellers, Prairie Fire, the Winnipeg International Writers Festival, the Winnipeg Foundation, the Winnipeg Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts).

The 2012 nominees for the Manitoba Book Awards were announced yesterday, with the presentation of awards scheduled for the gala on Saturday April 28th at the Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain and hosted by Drek Daa.  If I was fortunate enough to live near Winnipeg, I'd be delighted to attend this event which is free and open to the public.

The Manitoba Book Awards consist of the following thirteen categories:

• Aqua Lansdowne Prize for Poetry / Prix Lansdowne de poésie

• Best Illustrated Book of the Year / Meilleur livre illustré de l’année

• Manuela Dias Book Design of the Year / Prix Manuela-Dias de conception graphique en édition

• Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book

• Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award / Prix littéraire Carol-Shields de la ville de Winnipeg

• Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction

• Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction

• Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction / Prix Alexander-Kennedy-Isbister pour les études et essais

• John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer

• Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher / Prix Mary-Scorer pour le meilleur livre par un éditeur du Manitoba

• McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award

• Younger Category
• Older Category

• McNally Robinson Book of the Year

As I always do like to focus on the awards for younger readers, I've included the short-listed nominees for the McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award.

In the Younger Category:

Annie’s Bright Idea: A Christmastime Adventure 
by Audrhea Lande
Illustrated by Jenny Prest
Self-published

Nanabosho and the Butterflies 
by Joe and Matrine McLellan
Illustrated by Jackie Traverse
Pemmican Publications

S is for Science: A Discovery of Alphabet 
by Larry Verstraete
Sleeping Bear Press

In the Older Category:

Case Files: 40 Murders and Mysteries Solved by Science 
by Larry Verstraete
Scholastic

Kingdom of Trolls 
by Rae Bridgman
Sybertooth

Tori by Design 
by Colleen Nelson
Great Plains Teen Fiction






 
Find more details on this year's nominees at the Manitoba Writers' Guild or about the awards in general at the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers .